Followup Letter to ACOG President
I have found Dr. Waldman to be sincere and I hope I am right. It has been 2 months since I wrote to ACOG regarding Committee Opinion 476 on Home Birth. This e-mail is a followup to my correspondence with ACOG's president and is self explanatory.
3/11/2011
Dear Dr. Waldman, Hope this note finds you well. In your email to me from January 25th you mentioned that Dr. Hale would be passing my letter on to the committee for what I had hoped would be some honest answers to my serious doubts about their science and motivation in releasing Opinion 476. Sadly, my expectations of receiving a response from them were very low from past experience and it seems that low expectations of your Opinion Committee were appropriate. I have the energy, knowledge, evidentiary support and willingness to discuss these issues with my esteemed colleagues who make up this committee. I am disappointed that a committee from my college is assigned the awesome responsibility to make statements that have a powerful effect on practice and policies in America but ignores legitimate questions and dissent from one of its own members. I hope you will accept my offer to contribute to any future discussions inside of or publically made by ACOG regarding the safety of home birthing, licensed midwives and patient's rights to true informed consent with the same sincerity that I voice my concerns to you. I am one of but a very few professionals in the country who have the legitimacy and wisdom of experience living and working in both worlds. Opinion 476 should never have been released based on the Wax paper. It damages the credibility of the College. If we as obstetricians really do care about honesty and truth towards the women we serve then there should be no other motive but those from an organization like ours.
Sincerely, Stuart J. Fischbein MD FACOG
3/11/2011
Dear Dr. Waldman, Hope this note finds you well. In your email to me from January 25th you mentioned that Dr. Hale would be passing my letter on to the committee for what I had hoped would be some honest answers to my serious doubts about their science and motivation in releasing Opinion 476. Sadly, my expectations of receiving a response from them were very low from past experience and it seems that low expectations of your Opinion Committee were appropriate. I have the energy, knowledge, evidentiary support and willingness to discuss these issues with my esteemed colleagues who make up this committee. I am disappointed that a committee from my college is assigned the awesome responsibility to make statements that have a powerful effect on practice and policies in America but ignores legitimate questions and dissent from one of its own members. I hope you will accept my offer to contribute to any future discussions inside of or publically made by ACOG regarding the safety of home birthing, licensed midwives and patient's rights to true informed consent with the same sincerity that I voice my concerns to you. I am one of but a very few professionals in the country who have the legitimacy and wisdom of experience living and working in both worlds. Opinion 476 should never have been released based on the Wax paper. It damages the credibility of the College. If we as obstetricians really do care about honesty and truth towards the women we serve then there should be no other motive but those from an organization like ours.
Sincerely, Stuart J. Fischbein MD FACOG